Most of the folks I know over at UStream have been bursting at the seams to tell me about some sort of 'major big-time good news' that has been on the cusp of announcement for the last few weeks. Given the open conversations I'm lucky enough to have with most of them, they've been remarkably tight-lipped as to what the nature of the announcement was going to be, so I naturally assumed the most sensational rumor I'd heard to date, that Microsoft was about to announce the purchase of UStream.
Turns out that isn't the case, but this announcement involves a windfall of money none-the-less. The live embedded video broadcasting company has secured $11.1 million in Series A funding from DCM as well as returning investors Labrador Ventures and Band of Angels.
UStream has been growing quick, both in terms of maturity within the company as well as profile and userbase, and this money infusion is meant to further fuel that growth. Over the last several months, they've hosted a number of high profile streams, like the Digg Townhalls, James Blunt, Hannah Montanna, and just about every presidential candidate. They've almost become the de facto standard for embedded live video.
By that token, they've had a number of improvements to their platform rolled out recently, including the stealth release of their programmer API.